


Sharpshooter

by SatiricalDraperies



Category: Ender's Game - All Media Types, Westworld (TV)
Genre: Armistice-centric, F/F, Femslash, Pre-Relationship, artistic liberties with how flash suits and the battleroom work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 21:38:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15649428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatiricalDraperies/pseuds/SatiricalDraperies
Summary: Armistice encounters a sharpshooter who might somehow actually be as good as her.





	Sharpshooter

There is nothing like a battle to get Armistice all fired up. Her blood is pumping and her adrenaline is running as she jogs down the hallway to the battleroom with the rest of her army.

She takes a quick look behind herself to make sure that the launchies are keeping up. They’ve been given not one, not two, but three new additions to Snake Army within the last month. Maeve picked one of them out herself, but the other two were a surprise. They aren’t bad, as far as launchies go, but Armistice still doesn’t trust them in the battleroom. She can only hope that they’ll stay out of the way long enough for her to shoot the other army, and then they can play clean-up. Felix, Maeve’s favorite, is fairly intelligent, she’ll give him that, but he still doesn’t have the experience in zero-g that he needs to be a good enough fighter to keep up with the rest of the army.

“Snake Army!” Maeve stops them right outside the door to the battleroom and draws herself up into a formidable stance. “We are up against the Dragons today. Not only is their commander Akane brilliant, but they’re all trained in hand-to-hand combat, so try not to get too close.” They all laugh at that, but Armistice can see some of the soldiers get nervous, fidgeting in the ranks back where Maeve can’t see. None of them would ever dare to show any trace of fear in front of her. “Clementine will take her toon out first to see what’s out there, then report back.” Clementine nods and motions for her toon to follow her out the door. 

“Hector, get your toon ready to go out, guns a-blazin’.” They share a smile, then Hector flips his flash pistol and gets his toon ready to get into formation as soon as Clementine reports back.

“There’s not much out there, Maeve,” she says, back in the corridor less than thirty seconds from when her toon left. “There’s a fair number of stars around the perimeter of all the walls, but the center’s completely empty, and there’s none near either of the doors. We couldn’t see any of their army, so I’d guess that they’re still in the corridor like us, or that they’ve hidden behind some of the closer stars to their door.” 

Maeve considers this for a moment. “Thank you, Clementine. Send half of your toon out as a distraction. I want them heading straight for the enemy gate. Once they’re a quarter of the way there, Armistice, take your toon around the perimeter. Pick off any of their soldiers that are hiding back there behind the stars. The goal is to claim as many stars as possible, but stay hidden, alright, so that we have you in reserve if we need it. Oh, and Armistice?” Maeve holds her stare for a full two seconds. “Don’t do anything _too_ reckless, alright?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she says with a wicked grin as she slips out the door and into the battleroom.

It’s dim, but Armistice can see the faint glow of flash suits and the shadows of the enemy moving on the far wall. She motions to her toon to split up and sneak along the walls to approach the enemy from all sides. 

Her toon has all started to advance towards the enemy gate, but Armistice stays back, crouching behind one of the closest stars. She specifically built her toon with the best sharpshooters in the entire school, and she’s the best of the best. She knows she can hit almost anyone from this distance, and she can see just about the entire battleroom from her vantage point, letting her analyze the battle for the greatest threats and pick them off, one by one, before they can even realize what hit them. Armistice doesn’t begrudge Maeve her position as commander (she’d much rather shoot people than train launchies), but if she was a little bit better at inspiring devotion rather than fear, she would have had her own army ages ago. She’s tactically brilliant, just not as good with people as she is with guns.

But damn, is she good with guns.

Armistice shoots a couple idiots from Dragon trying to sneak around towards her gate. Easy pickings. She didn’t think Dragon was stupid enough to go for that, but then she sees their real plan. There’s a figure hidden in the shadows directly across the battleroom from her, and they’re freezing only the most important soldiers in each of Maeve’s various formations, rendering them useless. Whoever this is, they’re smart, and a good shot, too. Armistice lines up a couple trial shots at them, but she doesn’t actually fire any of them. The angle is all wrong. She’s going to have to move.

She pushes herself off, moving sideways towards the next closest star. From here, she should be able to make the shot, as long as the figure doesn’t move, so of course it does. Of course. A couple quick calculations later, she knows they’re headed towards her. On the one hand, she’s honored that they consider her a threat. But at the same time, this is a major inconvenience. She runs through all possible scenarios and reaches a conclusion. As long as the Dragon shooter is unfrozen, there’s no way for Snake to win. Armistice notes the shooter’s trajectory, and launches herself across the battleroom, moving parallel to them. She’s only got a brief window to shoot them, so she needs to make it count. There’s no question that the other shooter will freeze her. The best possible outcome here is mutually assured destruction, but Armistice is willing to make that sacrifice for her army, even if it lowers her individual standings.

They’re almost in position now. Armistice aims her flash pistol and fires. She sees their shooting arm go dark. It’s not a direct hit, but it got the job done. She only celebrates for a instant though, before she realizes that they must’ve hit her as well. Her whole suit is dark, and she can’t move a muscle. She knew it was coming, but she still feels the blow of only partially damaging them, while they completely immobilized her. At least Maeve will have a fighting chance now. Armistice can only hope that her sacrifice was worth it. 

“Out already?” Hector asks as he grabs her body and uses it like a shield. She can’t respond, but she narrows her eyes anyways. “Well, thanks for letting me use you,” he swings around, shooting several approaching Dragon soldiers. “You’ve been great.” He smiles and then pushes her out into the battle. 

Hector doesn’t put any spin on her frozen body, so Armistice can see exactly where she’s going, and _who_ she’s moving towards.

They’re a couple meters apart when the Dragon sharpshooter finally turns her head and notices Armistice approaching her. Her eyes lock onto Armistice’s, and neither one of them looks away. 

Armistice is still staring into her eyes when she feels a hand clench around her arm. She looks down at it in shock, then back up to its owner, her eyes catching on the name tag patch on her flash suit. _Hanaryo_ , it reads.

Hanaryo waits a moment, just holding Armistice’s arm and wordlessly commanding her attention. In that moment, Armistice knows that even if she wasn’t frozen in place by her flash suit, she would still be unable to move with Hanaryo right there. She imagines that she can feel her breath in the narrow space between them, despite the helmets covering their entire faces. They spend an indefinite amount of time like that, Hanaryo looking her up and down, sizing her up, and Armistice hoping desperately that she has whatever Hanaryo’s looking at her to find.

In the background, Armistice hears the sounds of Snake Army’s victory: Hector’s whoop of triumph, Clementine’s laugh, Maeve’s pleased congratulations, Felix’s shock at winning his first battle. She thinks that perhaps Hanaryo will release her now that the battle is over, but instead she pulls her even closer and whispers into her ear.

“Even a Snake can prove itself a Dragon.”

And then she lets go of her and returns to the rest of her army nonchalantly as they are both unfrozen, leaving Armistice staring at her retreating back in complete disbelief at everything that just happened.


End file.
